Eat Green, Stay Lean

Easy barbequed dishes served over healthy salads.

Ah! Summer! What a delightful time of year. Nature offers its best produce with lush verdant greens to tantalize our taste buds. What better idea than combining these vegetables available to us now to prepare easy barbequed dishes served over salads while staying cool as we use minimal time over hot ovens and stoves?

These recipes are sure to become family favorites as they can be savored all year as well.

Teriyaki Chicken Salad

Teriyaki sauce is a wonderful condiment to have in the kitchen as it spices up just about any dish. Fish, beef, chicken, mixed vegetables; all are enhanced with a touch of teriyaki.

Arrange romaine lettuce on four plates or in a bowl. Top with cut vegetables.

Cut grilled chicken into strips and spread over lettuce. Drizzle with salad dressing.

Preparation 20 minutes
Serves 4

Mediterranean Beef Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette

With juicy strips of steak and other delicious ingredients, this salad is a full meal in one plate for a hot summer day. Beef lovers will enjoy this tasty combo.

1pound boneless beef steak, cut 1 inch thick

¼ tsp salt

1/8 tsp black pepper

4 cups torn romaine leaves

½ small red onion, thinly sliced and separated into rings

1 cup halved baby tomatoes

1 recipe Lemon Vinaigrette

Trim fat from steak. Sprinkle steak with salt and pepper. Place steak on rack of a broiler pan. Broil 3 to 4 inches from the heat until desired doneness, turning once halfway through broiling time. Allow 15 to 17 minutes for medium – rare doneness or 20 to 22 minutes for medium doneness. Thinly slice steak.

Remove 2 tablespoons of the dressing; brush on all sides of the fish pieces.

Place fish on the greased rack of a broiler pan. Broil 4 inches from heat until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork. Allow 4 to 6 minutes per 1/2 – inch thickness of fish, being careful not to burn.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl combine Napa cabbage cut in strips, snow peas, and cooked and cooled edamame beans. Pour the remaining dressing over Napa mixture; toss to coat. Divide cabbage mixture between two plates. Sprinkle with cranberries and almonds. Top with fish.

Preparation 30 minutes
Makes 2 servings

Traditional Salade Nicoise

Looking for a meal in one dish this got to be the salad to try. Traditionally made with local olives, eggs, salad greens, potatoes, beets, tomatoes, oil – cured tuna or your choice of fish and anchovies, this protein – rich salad from Nice has become a staple all over France and other European countries.

Full of refreshing greens, laden with proteins where a hefty portion is low in calories, and a tasty one dish meal. This recipe is very versatile in allowing you to add or subtract ingredients add your preferred steamed vegetables for different flavors such as frozen broccoli, cauliflower or any other favorite veggie.

FOR THE DRESSING:

1 clove garlic

Kosher salt, to taste

⅓ cup olive oil

2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice

1 tbsp. Dijon mustard

1 shallot, minced

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

FOR THE SALAD:

1 lb small new potatoes, boiled until tender

6 oz. yellow baby beets, boiled until tender, peeled (optional)

6 oz. red baby beets, boiled until tender, peeled (optional)

8 oz. green beans, blanched

12 oz. cherry tomatoes, halved

½ cup black Niçoise olives

8 small radishes, trimmed and thinly sliced

8 salt – packed anchovies, rinsed and drained

4 hard – boiled eggs, halved lengthwise

3 (4 – oz.) cans high – quality oil – packed tuna, drained

1 small cucumber, thinly sliced

½ cup loosely packed basil leaves, to garnish

¼ cup thinly sliced scallions, to garnish

Make the dressing: Mince garlic on a cutting board and sprinkle heavily with salt; using a knife, scrape garlic and salt together to form a smooth paste. Alternatively, use two frozen garlic cubes defrosted and follow the same procedure. Transfer paste to a bowl and whisk in oil, juice, mustard, shallot, and salt and pepper; set aside.

To assemble Arrange all ingredients in separate rows on a large serving platter; drizzle dressing over all ingredients, season with salt and pepper, and garnish with basil and scallions just before serving.

Preparation 20 minutes
Serves 4 – 6

Healthy Collard Greens

This recipe is written for those that would like to increase the nutritional value of their meal manifold; collard greens are enjoyed by those who originate from Asia, or South America, where greens are more abundant and familiar. The nutritional benefits of all green leafy vegetables are well known. The natural markets are now full of collard greens, a very hardy flat green leafy vegetable that is delicious when prepared in many tasty ways. It does require developing a taste for it, but is well worth trying. The leaves are flat thus very easy to check for infestation.

I enjoy them steamed and then sautéed in oil with some onions and spices.

Wonderfully nutritious collard leaves are very low in calories (provide only 30 calories per 100 g) and contain no cholesterol. However, its green leaves contain a very good amount of soluble and insoluble dietary fiber that helps control LDL cholesterol levels and offer protection against hemorrhoids, constipation as well as various cancers diseases.

Collard greens need to be washed very thoroughly to clean it from the debris and sediments that come with it.

Soak in a salt solution for 30 minutes to remove any bugs, or germs that might have accumulated.

Incidentally one can also use other greens as well that have tremendous health benefits such as mustard greens, kohlrabi greens, beet greens, daikon leaves, all of them have properties that are hard to compete. A little goes a long way nutritionally. Just incidentally, most people ask the grocer to discard the kohlrabi greens which I then collect free of charge and enjoy often.

Sautéed Collard Green Mix

This simple and tasty rendition of collard greens is chockfull of nutrients including iron from the sesame seeds.

1 package collard greens

1 red pepper

2 carrots

1 red/white onion chopped

1 Tbs oil

1 Tbs sesame seeds toasted

Salt and pepper to taste

Wash collard greens in running water and wash well, discard the water and soak greens in salt water for 30 minutes to get rid of any bugs, microbes or other unseen matter.

Shake off the water and then cut out the stems. Slice leaves in thin strips.

Fill a large pot with water and cook the greens for ten minutes or so, until limp. Remove from water allowing to cool. Slice collards into 1 inch strips.

In a large frying pan, toast sesame seeds for 10 minutes until fragrant. Remove from the pan and reserve for garnish.

Pour oil into the frying pan add chopped onion and allow to sauté until translucent approximately 10 minutes.

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About the Author

Gitta Bixenspanner is a certified nutritionist who lives in Montreal with her husband. She teaches high school, seminary and give inspiring adult education classes in Jewish topics. As a certified nutritionist she gives cooking seminars, the main purpose being to teach people to adopt healthier lifestyles in keeping with the mitzvah of taking care of our bodies.

I’ve been dating a young woman for the past two years and we are starting to think about marriage. The problem is that she is not Jewish. I would want her to convert, but in a way where there would be no doubt about its validity, so that we and our kids don’t have problems later on. How do you recommend that I proceed?

The Aish Rabbi Replies:

I appreciate your desire to do the right thing and proceed in an authentic way.

The process of conversion is challenging and involves a process of a year or two. This benefits the person converting, to ensure he fully appreciates the responsibilities he is taking on.

According to the Code of Jewish Law (Shulchan Aruch), a valid conversion replicates the experience at Mount Sinai of 3,300 years ago, when the Jewish nation accepted the Torah. For your friend to convert, she must:

believe that Judaism is the true religion, not just accept it by default

study what it says in the Torah

commit to observe all the Torah's commandments

Further, a conversion must be motivated for the sincere purpose of getting close to God and His Torah, not for ulterior motives. Thus, your friend would have to embrace Judaism and the Torah for its own sake, not in order to marry you. She should have the exact same desire to convert even with you entirely out of the picture.

If your friend studies Judaism and feels it is right for her, she would then approach an Orthodox conversion court and explain her situation. The court would then decide if it feels she is a sincere candidate for conversion. If yes, she would begin the lengthy process of studying and practicing to become a true convert.

Of course, to have a successful relationship, you will also need a high level of appreciation and commitment to Judaism. Perhaps you could begin your own study program to discover how Torah values enhance our lives and form the bedrock of civilization.

You should endeavor to live near a Jewish community which has adult education programs, rabbis you can consult with, Shabbat hospitality programs, etc.

In 1273 BCE (Jewish year 2488), Moses completed his farewell address to the Jewish people, and God informed Moses that the day of his death was approaching (Deut. 31:14). Amazingly, the anniversary of Moses' completing his teaching coincides with the date in 1482 of the first printing of the standard format used for Jewish Bibles today: vowel signs, accents, translation (Targum), and Rashi commentary.

Lack of gratitude is at the root of discontent. In order to be consistently serene, we must master the attribute of being grateful to the Creator for all His gifts. As the Torah (Deuteronomy 26:11) states, "Rejoice with all the good the Almighty has given you." This does not negate our wanting more. But it does mean that we have a constant feeling of gratitude since as long as we are alive, we always have a list of things for which to be grateful.

[Solomon] was wiser than all men (I Kings 5:11), even wiser than fools (Midrash).

What does the Midrash mean by "wiser than fools"?

A man of means was once a Sabbath guest at the home of the Chofetz Chaim. He insisted upon paying the sage in advance for the Sabbath meals - an insulting demand. To everyone's surprise, the Chofetz Chaim accepted the money.

After the Sabbath the Chofetz Chaim forced the guest to take the money back. He explained, "Had I refused to accept the money before the Sabbath, the thought that he was imposing upon me might have distracted from the man's enjoying the spirit of the Sabbath. Although it was foolish of him to feel this way, I wished to put his mind at rest."

Not everyone thinks wisely all the time. Some people have foolish ideas. Yet if we oppose them, they may feel they have been wronged. Insisting on the logic of our own thinking may not convince them in the least. In such instances, it may require great wisdom to avoid offending someone, yet not submitting to his folly.

By accepting his guest's money, knowing that he would return it to him after the Sabbath, the Chofetz Chaim wisely accommodated this man's whim without compromising on his own principles.

A wise person may be convinced by a logical argument, but outsmarting a fool truly requires genius.

Today I shall...

try to avoid offending people whom I feel to be in the wrong, without in any way compromising myself.

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